It's the best of Always On, Season 4!

July 9, 2013

Transcript

-I'm besooted.
-You look totally awesome.
This week on Always On.
-Catch.
-We showcase the best of Season 4.
-From a trip to NASA.
-To Kona, Hawaii and Vail, Colorado with the latest tech gadgets.
-Oh.
-No, no.
Always On is on.
-Welcome to Always On.
I'm Molly Wood.
-And I'm Jeff Cannata.
-This is the show where we take a look at the tech that's part of your life.
-And your future.
-And this week we're looking back at some of the highlights of Season 4, so many great moments.
-Yes.
It was a great season and we got to go on some incredible trips.
One of my favorites was going to Kona, Hawaii where we tested out underwater cameras in the warm clear waters.
-That was awesome, but I'm not gonna lie.
Jeff had this trip to NASA that I will be jealous about for my entire life.
-It really was
a childhood dream realized.
-3, 2, 1.
-We may have seen the last of the modern man space flight missions, but that doesn't mean we're giving up on sending astronauts to space.
NASA is hard at work right now on missions to the moon by 2020, asteroids by 2025, and Mars by 2030.
This is NASA's
Space Exploration Vehicle weighing 6,600 pounds.
It's a futuristic concept designed by engineers to explore the surface of the moon and Mars.
Let's take a look.
The goal of this vehicle is to be able to explore the surface of Mars, the moon--
-Or any other planet.
-To make observations through the front of it.
-Right.
-So you can be scouting out different parts of the planet.
-Right and looking for, you know, either geological things or signs of life or
whatever the science happens to be.
-And you pull up to something, you say that's interesting, I wanna get out and explore it further, which is easy to do when you consider all the tech built into this vehicle.
First, it's all electric with a lithium ion battery that powers it, and it's controlled with this steering stick.
There's also a dozen cameras attached to the exterior, and the 12 wheels can each pivot 360 degrees, so it can drive up and down most slopes.
So can we take it for a ride?
-Absolutely.
-All right.
Let's do it.
-I'll give you a ride then I'll turn it over to you and you can drive.
-I can drive.
-You can drive.
-I can drive.
I'm so excited.
Next stop, the moon.
Oh.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
That's amazing.
-This is what we call the crab mode, so we're actually blending a Y command with a little bit of yaw and it allows you to go around and keep your optimal
window view for what you're trying to look at.
-All right.
Moving to Mars, we're going up.
Oh, look around.
We're just rotating like it's nothing.
It's so fast.
How incredible.
NASA has also designed the vehicle so astronauts can venture outside.
There's a space suit port integrated into the back hatch that makes it possible to step into the suit right from the cabin and go for a spacewalk, but if
astronauts just wanna explore from inside, there's also a specially designed window for better viewing.
This bubble was made for astronauts to be able to actually stick their face in and observe rocks up close while staying inside the SEV.
You can actually pitch it down so that we can look right up close next to the rock.
How cool is that?
Pilot selected.
-Okay.
You have got the vehicle.
-All
right.
Here we go.
Oh my God.
I'm going into the crater.
Oh my God.
It's amazing.
It's the coolest video game you ever played in your life.
All right.
I'm gonna try the crab now.
-Okay.
All right.
Now start twisting the stick.
-I'm twisting the stick.
Oh, here we go.
-Yes.
That's a good point.
Good.
-Thank you.
I've played my fair share of joystick games.
This is insanely steep.
Faith in the vehicle.
Incredible.
Oh, crazy.
I'm driving a space vehicle.
I'm driving a space vehicle on the simulated lunar surface right now.
10-year-old me, eat your heart out.
NASA has also developed this prototype for deep space exploration.
It's for missions that can one day explore near-earth asteroids.
This vehicle lets astronauts check out the surface of those asteroids
surveying and collecting geological samples to study later.
So where is all of this headed?
Are we going to be mining asteroids?
-The more we know about asteroids, the better position we'll be in to deflect them because someday maybe a hundred years from now or a hundred million years from now a big asteroid is gonna hit the earth.
So we wanna find out how to make that not happen.
-Exactly.
-And some people have said if the dinosaur had a space program they wouldn't be extinct.
-All right.
So I got to drive the wheeled one--
-Right.
-Can we give this one a spin?
-Yes.
Let's go inside.
-All right.
I'm gonna follow my commander and go toward where the laser pointer is pointed on the asteroid.
It's just like the video game Asteroids at this momentum.
I mean I have a lot of experience with video game Asteroids so I'm probably pretty good at this.
But all joking aside, this is no video game and NASA is serious about using vehicles like these for future space missions whether it's to the moon, Mars, and yes, even
near-earth asteroids.
I could not have had more fun at NASA.
It was everything I wanted it to be and more.
I hung out with an astronaut.
-And it really it showed how much fun you're having too.
It was awesome.
-Yes.
-All right.
It's time for us to take a quick break.
When we come back, it's that trip to Kona, Hawaii and those 2 rugged underwater cameras.
-And then later we are testing the S4 at an average elevation of 8100 feet.
-Welcome back, everyone.
Now like we said earlier, Kona, Hawaii could not be a nicer place to test some rugged outdoor gear.
-And for our underwater adventure, we road tested the Olympus and Fujifilm underwater cameras.
-Welcome to the funnest road test that I think we've done yet.
-Yes.
-Maybe even better than the skydiving.
-Yes.
We're on a boat with a whole pod of dolphins surrounding us and taking pictures with our new action cam.
-I know we're so old school we're actually using cameras instead of phones, so I'm gonna try out the hopefully waterproof
and otherwise rugged Fujifilm FinePix XP200 and you have the Olympus Tough TG-2.
-Indeed.
-Now both of these are supposed to be good underwater up to about 50 feet.
-Yes.
-We're gonna test it with just snorkeling in the water and then we're gonna hand them off to some divers to try to take them just a tiny bit deeper.
-Yes.
-Tiny bit deeper.
Oh my God.
Look at this shot.
Look at this one right there.
-It's the one.
-Wow.
-I did that shot.
-Dude.
-Pretty good, yes.
-Yes, that's outstanding.
All right.
I have to say so far our cameras are holding up pretty well.
-Yes.
-It's gonna come down to image quality.
Okay.
So we have the 2 Tims here.
-Yes, We wanna to make it fair so we got 2 Tims.
We don't wanna have--
-Because that makes them more open.
-Exactly.
-And the Tims are divers.
We are not, neither Jeff and I are diver certified so we're gonna go ahead give each of you a camera.
-Tims, are you ready?
-Yes, we're up.
-All right.
-Let's do this.
-Good luck.
-Nice.
-Tim's down.
-2 Tims in the water.
-2 Tims in the water.
-And I think one thing we can guarantee is that Tim will win.
-Hey.
-Hey.
Welcome back.
-The Olympus might be done.
-Oh no.
-Oh.
The Olympus might be done.
-It was on all the way to 130 feet.
It lost focus around 80.
-Yes.
-Then just when we sort of coming up, she shut off.
-Really?
She has to vent.
We need to get her one of those [unk].
-So went to 100 it was fine.
-Yes.
-And slower and slower we're still taking pictures with the other Tim at 130.
-Wow.
-Pretty sweet.
-It's got much more problems than that.
-Oh, it's got problems.
-Only the [unk].
-Yes.
-So I'm assuming there may be some water in here.
As I dried mine off to open the battery compartment
but to be thinking--
-Yes, unlocking it and opening the battery compartment and there's definitely moisture in there.
-Oh, no.
Oh, I can see a little water right there.
Oh.
-Yes, I can see droplets.
Yes.
-That might be what happened to it.
-Okay.
Just because my camera doesn't work anymore and every glass surface has moisture under it--
-Oh.
-Doesn't mean that pictures not be amazing.
Let's check them out.
-Okay.
Oh, nice shot though.
-Thanks.
Wow.
Wow.
Oh, wow.
-I know.
-Oh.
-Isn't that awesome?
-That was great.
-That was the best moment ever.
-That's a great photo.
-You gotta print that.
-Yes.
-You're gonna put that on the wall.
I have to say that I'm thinking the image quality is almost a draw at this point.
-I agree.
-Unfortunately for your camera, that does not appear to be the deciding factor.
-It was fine down to 50 feet but below that not so much.
I think that both of these cameras did a great
job with pictures and video both.
-Absolutely.
I would feel perfectly comfortable taking any of these on a snorkeling trip.
I just think if you're gonna mess up, maybe go a little more rugged--
-Yes.
-But ultimately the Fujifilm stayed strongest.
-It's a little unfair.
It says right on the front 50 feet.
So we did exceed that, but if you're gonna award a winner, the guy that can go beyond and still hold up has gotta be the winner.
-Yes.
I mean I think it's clear that even in non-optimal circumstances, the Fujifilm
FinePix XP200 is the ruggedest.
Okay.
I got to admit I was so impressed with that Fujifilm that I bought that camera for my own personal use.
-That's pretty impressive.
-Yes.
It was--
-It made a big impression on you.
-It was awesome and I cannot say thank you enough to the 2 Tims.
-Yes.
They were rad.
They went deep for us.
-We asked them to go 100 feet and they were like we can do 150.
Why not?
130, something like that.
All right.
I will never forget those guys.
I will also never forget the impact that
8100 feet of elevation had on us when we went to Vail, Colorado.
-Yes.
It was hard to get used to especially running in that kind of elevation, but as hard a time we had, the Galaxy S4 also had a tough time.
-That's true.
-Are they both the same?
-Way their time though.
I think these are my--
-We've never done this before.
-These readers are already cold.
-All right.
-I'm besooted.
-You look totally awesome.
-Sure?
-Yes.
You look all like manly.
-Yes, for the first time in my life.
-You know what?
This is so beautiful.
-You gotta take some pictures.
-I gotta get a couple of pictures here.
You know what though?
I feel like this has been really the best idea.
Maybe I'll just toss this phone back to shore.
-Yes.
I'm sure you can make it to shore.
-I can make it, right?
-Yes.
No problem.
-Okay.
Yes.
Here we go.
-You didn't make it.
-I didn't make it.
I didn't get even close.
-No.
The phone is totally getting wet.
-All right.
Let's go get it.
We don't have any--
-This is gonna be very, very, very cold.
-Oh.
By the way, we should point out at this juncture that this water is about 38 degrees moving at 677 cubic feet per second.
-My hand can't move so you have to do it.
-Oh.
It's on.
It's
on for now.
-Hey.
-Hey, man.
We should do that again.
-Catch.
-Oh.
-I didn't make it to shore.
-Didn't make it to shore either.
-This time you have to fish it out.
-Oh, come on.
That's men's work.
Oh.
Yes, super cold.
That is so cold.
Hey, but oh, the phone is still on.
-Still on.
-Doing stuff though.
Once we get on the Wi-Fi to call for help probably.
-This is like what are you doing?
-No chance.
All right.
-It doesn't seem to have a problem.
-I know.
Okay.
You know what?
We're gonna put it in a bag of rice until the next test comes around.
Okay.
Time for a drop test from a rock wall.
-Let's take it to the wall.
-How appropriate.
All right.
You guys you'll get us suited up?
-And hook us up.
-Okay.
-Let's do this.
-Okay.
Cool.
-Come on over here, guys.
-So I have the phone
securely tucked into my sports bra where I feel certain--
-Nothing bad could happen.
-There's no way for it to fall out when I take a picture of Jeff.
All right.
-We're going up.
-Up we go.
-There's no special way to do this.
You just go.
-Yes.
-Oh, God.
Not used to the altitude.
Super comfortable up here, guys.
Super comfortable.
View is awesome up here actually.
-I feel like maybe you should take a picture.
-Okay.
Gonna take a picture of you?
-Yes.
Let me just hand you this phone.
-Okay.
Just hand it right to me.
-Okay.
Yes.
Wow.
Oh no.
-Oh.
-Oh no.
Oh.
The phone fell on the grass.
Oh, man.
-That's the best part.
That is the best part.
You're going down is the best part.
-So let's check it out and see how it's doing.
-It looks fine.
-It's fine.
-It landed on the soft grass.
-Oh, it's still-- it came on though.
-It did come
on.
-All right.
So I think we should see if we can--
-Hit the wall.
-Bounce it off the wall like a little bit.
-All right.
-All right.
There's no pretense at all at this point.
Oh.
That would definitely happen in real life.
I hope that what you saw fly off wasn't a piece of your wall.
That would be oh--
-Oh yes.
-Oh yes.
-Something bad happened.
-Oh, yes.
We have a crack on the inside, hurled it against the wall.
You definitely have internal crackage.
You can see that there.
-Yes.
-And it did turn off for the time being.
That could just be the water but it's still kind of okay.
So we'll just continue to--
-Beat it up.
-All right.
I think I'm filming.
I'm gonna try to record you from-- oh no, oh no, oh no.
Did you hit it?
-I hit it.
-Oh no.
I dropped my phone.
-Oh.
-All right.
This is it.
-Hit it.
Yes.
-Oh my God.
-Oh.
Not good.
-That's a lot of crackage.
-Wow.
That's a lot of crackage.
-It is.
-You hit that phone pretty good.
-I did.
-And gee that's the black thing.
That was the protective plastic.
-Your protective plastic did not do its job.
-No.
-Yes.
-That's pretty clearly a fail.
-That's pretty clearly a fail.
-Vail fail.
-Vail fail.
-Look at that.
-We were in the river.
We were climbing rocks.
We were mountain biking.
We were running through mud.
I don't know if we could've crammed in more adventure in 1 day than we did in Vail, Colorado.
-It was pretty epic.
I napped for like a week after that.
-Yes.
That's still napping.
-Yes.
Me too.
And that's it for this week, everyone.
Coming up next week, it's the Always On bloopers show.
-It's always the best episode of the year/most embarrassing.
-You'll be surprised.
Those dolphins swear like
sailors.
-That's true.
-They really do.
We look forward to seeing you next time on Always On.
-Thanks for watching.
Oh, what a season it was.
We got to go on some incredible trips.
-Yes.
-Including one of my favorites, when we got to check out these under-- sometimes you just go off the tracks.
You know your brain goes man--
-I know.
It's like mentally your brain is just like.
It sounds fun to the outsider.
-Yes.
-We'll do like oh, okay.